Hundred

October 8, 2016

Oh gosh. I didn’t know it would be this quick. Just when I thought I had rebuked such typical show of borrowing so many elements from other series in the same genre, here comes another one. Yeah well, perhaps in this sense it isn’t as bad as Saijaku Muhai No Bahamut, but Hundred still feels like it has borrowed from harem, mecha and sci-fi elements from other similar animes. I’m too lazy at this point to list them down now. Heck, making it worse is how the name of this series sounds lazy as well. And I thought it wouldn’t be so bad (of course it is) had it been about a cheap sleazy fanservice filled anime about a hundred girls chasing after a single boy and hence the name of the series. Alas it didn’t turn out that way as it got its name from something less inspiring. At least from my point of view. Oh well, what to do? Since I love this genre so much and keep coming back, might as well sit back and relax the cringe worthy crappiness. You know, new boy with high hidden talent arrives at new school. Has dark secret and past. Meets a handful of girls who would become his b*tches, including the b*tch that hated and challenged him at the start, fights monsters with their mecha suits, more girls, crisis that threatens to harm innocent lives, saves the day, more harem hijinks. Oh yeah. I’m getting pretty good at this now.

Episode 1
Why is it always the main character must have some sort of traumatic past. His old city ravaged by a monster and he tried saving a girl. Something among those lines. It is no wonder Hayato Kisaragi once more wakes up from such dreams as he approaches the academy ship of Little Garden. Apparently Hayato has some super reputation as a pair of girls wait in line to welcome him. Not the kind to revel in the spotlight, Hayato gives them the slip only to be spotted by Reitia Saint-Emilion. Before he knows it, the crowd gathers around him like a rockstar. His specialty must be giving the slip because he easily does that. Emile Crossfode, his childhood friend hugs him, glad to see him here. Please bear in mind this is a boy!!!! No sh*t. Or is it… Later Reitia apologizes to Hayato for calling him out like that and making him attract attention. Students attend the opening ceremony at the hall hosted by student council vice president, Erica Candle and Liddy Steinberg. The president and queen of them all is Claire Harvey. Noa Sheldon and Liu Xuemei arrive late as they were the ones waiting for Hayato. However Claire will not take this sh*t and tells them to pack up and leave. Woah! Such heavy drama stuffs on the first day? I’m sure Hayato wants to protest but he is too meek. Surprisingly it is Emile who stands up to that b*tch. He risks expulsion too as Claire explains the failure to follow orders will lead to death of the entire squad because as Slayers, they will be fighting monsters called Savages. Emile brings up Hayato’s Hundred compatibility score so Claire asks Hayato’s opinion. He too opposes their expulsion. And thus Claire challenges him to a duel in which their expulsion will be cancelled if he wins. Why is it that such genres has the main character end up fighting the powerful b*tch on the first day?

Later Emile introduces Hayato to his best friend, a technologist on Little Garden, Charlotte “Char” Dimandius and her cat maid assistant, Meimei. There is also this autonomous computer that controls Little Garden, LiZA. Basically a powerful AI. Char proceeds to explain about the mecha suits known as Hundred (a term derived from Century Armament) that is only effective against Savages. They have many forms but ultimately their goal is to protect humanity. Since Hayato is willing to shoulder that responsibility, Char gives him his Hundred. Hayato than has a mock practice with Emile. And he gets owned. At the end of the day, he remembers he forgot to visit his little sister, Karen at hospital. Now, how to you please a pouting woman? A peck on the forehead like she wanted? Ah, now she is all nice and sweet again. And why do animes that feature nurse, they must have super big boobs?! Is this hentai? You can’t blame Hayato for looking at Miharu Kashiwagi’s boobs, right? When he returns to his room, he is shocked to see Emile changing. Don’t jump to conclusions yet… Emile throws stuffs at him. So after calming down, why is Emile in his room? Because they’re roommates, silly! As Emile sews his uniform, he accidentally poked his finger. The little blood is enough to send Hayato’s trauma activating. He quickly sucks his finger to stop the bleeding. Hardly anything romantic. He explains himself that he was involved in a Savage attack years ago so this is somewhat his reflex. And now time for Hayato and Claire’s battle to start.

Episode 2
Claire is so confident that she is willing to give Hayato a few handicaps like support from Emile and she herself won’t use full body armament. When it starts, Hayato couldn’t control his acceleration and rams into Claire. More cliché stuffs. Hand on boob. Oh dear. Mad girl. How will she get married now? She fights back and Hayato is losing. Before she is about to finish him, something inside him activates. His movement changes, he is faster and his attacks sharper. Is this Hayato? She is forced to use her full body armament to stop him. Although it might seem she broke the rules and officially won, she claims she lost to herself. Therefore this match is a tie. Later she visits him in hospital. He has no recollection when he transformed. She is curious to know who he is because for a student to just wield Hundred for a couple of days and pull off all those super manoeuvres and corner her, it shouldn’t be normally possible. Next day, Hayato agrees to go out to Central town with Emile. Because Emile wants to date him. Bear in mind he is a guy… Or is it… Hayato attracts lots of stares because of the duel with Claire. Even Karen calls him as the hospital staffs are talking about it. So worried this sister that she gets permission to leave the hospital to join Hayato. She meets Emile for the first time and her suspicions are good as ours. Is he really a boy? Even more disturbingly, Karen hopes there isn’t any gay time between them. They noticed an advertisement of a popular idol, Sakura Kirishima who is going to have a concert on a nearby island, Zwei Island. Karen joins them in the outing and well, not sure if this is bad luck because they bump into Claire and her student council members, including Claire’s assistant, Chris Steinbelt. Claire needs his help for the student council. More accurately, she wants him to join Selection, a special unit under the student council. He will remain as a student and get to fight real battles with Savages. Seems they don’t have enough Slayers due to a previous mission. Of course all this is voluntary. If Hayato is joining, Emile wants in too but they claim he doesn’t qualify. This is when Emile dares them to a challenge right now. Liddy isn’t happy Emile is being rude so he challenges her instead. Wait a minute. They are going to fight right here and right now?! Thankfully the alarm goes off before it gets serious. Looks like Savages have appeared on Zwei Island. They will settle this later but Char suggests Hayato and co to be taken along too.

Episode 3
Despite his looks, Chris is actually a smart analyst. There 3 Savages on Zwei Island and to be Trenta type. Claire changes her mind of not deploying Hayato and Emile because they lack experience. Claire’s plan is to hold off the Savages till the support from Warslarn HQ arrives. Char didn’t think she would rely on her older brother, Judar who is also the CEO. But Hayato reminds her of what she just said about noblese oblige, using your powers for the sake of those who don’t. If they wait for support, the city will be destroyed. Char adds that her recommendation was from LiZA and the newbies are their best bet in reducing damage. Claire agrees but the duo will remain on standby. Our student council veterans easily take the first one out. Emile pushes Hayato into the action and they too easily take out the second one. Why is it always the last one that is the toughest? Erica and Liddy almost died and yet Claire still believes she can settle this herself and not need their help? Guess what? She runs out of energy! Could have died too had not Hayato carried her away. They are in the Savage’s firing path but if they move, the airport will get hit and many will die. Hayato uses his barrier to deflect the beam. Nicely done. When Emile defends unconscious Liddy, his clothes gets ripped apart. Well, what do you know? Boobs! I knew it all along! Hayato remembers Emile as the girl from his trauma, Emilia Hermit. He goes to protect her but gets crushed by the Savage’s might. And then this is where Hayato transforms again into his full body armament. He is going wild. Going on a rampage. Man, he is savage! The only way to stop him? Emilia kisses him! Calms him down. Instantly. Together they destroy the Savage. With all that done, time for Claire to be shock in seeing Emile as a girl. It is unfortunate Sakura’s concert was cancelled but nobody got injured thanks to them. And as compensation for making Karen worried? A kiss on the forehead. Nobody’s kiss must outdo her.

Emilia strikes a deal with Claire to continue pretending to be a guy or else the entire academy will be in uproar. Time for Emile to reveal what he knows. He was infected by a deadly Savage virus then. Hayato helped by sucking out the virus and this made him infected too. People with such virus are called Variants and there are less than 10 in the world. A characteristic of the virus is that you lose yourself when you are about to die as the virus activates itself. Emile managed to control it via training. So why did he pretend to be a guy? So he can live in the same room as Hayato? I don’t know if I should call that gay… I’m confused… I didn’t know the virus is a little pervy too because it makes Hayato fall over Emile and squeezing those boobs. How to calm him down? A kiss! This is the reason: To suppress an activated virus, an inactivate virus must be administered. What better way than kissing, right? So we’re going to see lots of kissing from now on? And before the duo could romantically kiss this time (no virus in the way this time), Claire barges in to remind Emile about moving out only to see this scandal. They panic as Hayato fumbles onto Claire. A hand on her boob plus their lips met! OMG! Hayato, why do you always steal Claire’s first times?! The boob groping, the carrying and now the kiss. What next? Her virginity?! Claire and Emile quarrel but the former is made to shut up when Emile mentions about kissing Hayato. I don’t know how this turned out because now Emile bugs Hayato for a kiss. Trying to be the character with the most number of kisses with the main character?

Episode 4
Hayato and Emile are in a mock battle with Reitia and Fritz Granz. Hayato almost lost it but manages to control his inner demons and wins the fight. He is then called by Claire for a mission. As Sakura’s concert is postponed, she has personally requested Hayato to be her bodyguard. It seems the dangers of Savages still lurks. There were 7 in total detected. While in the previous episode 3 were defeated and the balance 4 were shot down upon re-entry to Earth, only 1 body was found. Yup, do the math. They are pretty much out there still. So poor Emile can’t go on a morning date with Hayato since he has to leave early. Hey, did they sleep next to each other on the same bed?! This is a girl pretending to be a boy, you know? So here Hayato is being Sakura’s bodyguard. Inside her room once they are alone, she becomes aggressive in asking him to marry her! She saw from the video how Hayato slain the Savage and instantly liked him. She goes on ranting about announcing it over the media and even planning out their wedding, family, kids, house, pet and oh, a rainbow in the sky. Wow… The only way to stop her is to play her game so Hayato agrees to do all that and wants to seal it with a kiss! Then she backs out and goes take a bath. Hah! So she was just teasing and trolling after all. Or is she… Then there is that accident in the bath in which she calls him to get her recorder. He tries to pick up her clothes strewn all over the floor and she misinterprets it. A little clumsy moment has her slip on the soap. If not for those damn convenient steam, Hayato could have seen everything and really have to marry her. After the usual press conference, Sakura takes him to the site where she is to hold her concert. It seems she is also a Hundred as she transforms into her sexy fairy suit to fly around. There is some explanation about her energy sense to create illusions from Char. Why is she here? Char and Sakura’s manager, Souffle Clearrail used to be colleagues and Char once saved Sakura’s life before. After done with his bodyguard job, Hayato returns and thinks he is the only one to use the public bath. Heck, there Emile is. Emile gets jealous after learning Hayato gets to call Sakura by her first name and wants him to do the same. At least Emile didn’t ask him to repeatedly spam it. Emile shows his scar across the body that is almost healed. And this is another typical women’s logic because Emile has been flirting all the while and when Hayato accidentally gropes her boobs, she screams and calls him a pervert. WTF?!

Episode 5
Claire wanted to give Hayato some poolside fanservice when she realized too late she wasn’t wearing her top. Free show! Immediately Liddy wants to kill him (even if it’s not his fault) but slips and has her crotch on his face! In rage, she squeezes his crotch! Super ouch! On to serious business, Claire tells him about some variable stone that was stolen during last month’s Savage chaos. Thieves might strike again so he has to be more careful guarding Sakura. On to private business, she wants to challenge him to some swimming duel. I think he made a good choice to pass up wearing those Speedos. Instead he went out on a date with Emilia. What are the chances of others seeing them? Emilia believes it is nil since not many students are on this island. You know say because here comes Fritz and Reitia! Better hide in the changing room. As Emilia goes to get drinks, Claire calls him that Sakura is missing. Not kidnapped but by her own will since she left a note. So everyone is searching for her and she wants Hayato to join in too. Why does Claire sound mad? Because she saw on the surveillance cameras of his date with Emilia. Stalker! To make up for it, he must go shopping with her next time. Speaking of Sakura, here she is right before him! She wants to meet him? Not wanting to risk Sakura seeing Emile, he agrees to go with her. Hayato informs Claire and again she doesn’t sound too happy. Yeah, another girl beat her to him.

At the Grand Canyon, she gives her thanks for saving him. When she hums a familiar song, Sakura mentions that this is a song her mother wrote and not many people hear it. Upon learning his sister is Karen, she quickly put together events that ascertain that they once met before. They met at a shelter after another Savage attack that left her mother dead. The siblings listened to her humming and Hayato noted how it made him feel much better. She can’t believe meeting again the guy who changed her life. Thanks to him, she gained confidence and continued singing. Subsequently, Sakura’s father whom she has never met suddenly claimed her and took her back to his homeland. Shortly she fell ill of a virus. She lost her ability to sing then and Souffle was put in charge as her genetic engineer. However her dad sold her off to Warslarn research facility where the lab’s director, Vitaly Tynayanov and his scientists injected fluids from Savage virus into experimented kids. Many children died. Sakura survived and gained her ability to sing again. However, Vitaly’s goal wasn’t to cure the illness but to turn normal people into Slayers. Regardless of the side effects, the vaccines kept being injected. Sakura’s singing managed to calm them down for a while although it did nothing to completely cure them. In the end, she survived by mere luck. Sakura is happy that Hayato is also a Variant like her. Fate? Coincidence? Taking a bus on the way back, a Savage attacks.

Episode 6
Hayato fights the Savage while waiting for reinforcement to arrive. Sakura supports him and she doesn’t care if people start thinking they are a couple. Emile, Fritz and Reitia are here to back him up. In between fighting the Savage, Emile has time to pry Hayato and Sakura apart. Too close? Surprisingly, Sakura’s voice could make the Savage stop dead in its tracks. Before Hayato can deal the final blow, he is attacked by a group of strange people. They kill the Savage and fight off the rest of our Slayers. Once they get the Savage’s core, they retreat. Seems they work for Vitaly. Back at the academy, Claire explains that these people are Hunters. Illegal Slayers, so to speak. They are going around taking Savage’s core because it is equivalent to the variable stone. At least in monetary value. This information is top secret and they are not to share it with the rest of the world. Later Hayato goes to talk to Sakura. She believes her songs affect people because she is not an ordinary singer. It is because she is a Variant that she can. She is sad her songs don’t actually reach anyone and is just deceiving people. Of course Hayato disagrees with all that. He was touched by her song when they first met. She didn’t have the virus then, right? Such sweet words give Sakura hope once more. She even iterates that she is going to fall deeper in love with him. Sakura performs her concert filled with songs, special effects and flying around. I can’t believe when she sings that familiar song, Karen instantly recognizes her from back then. She has been a hardcore fan and never even realized this once?! Next day when the gang sees off Sakura, she cheekily pulls Hayato’s hand in pretence of shaking them but quickly kisses his cheek! Gasp! Shock! Let the cat fight begin! She promises to see him soon. Probably he didn’t count on this soon because he wakes up to find Sakura on top of him!!! OMFG! And then Claire and Emile barge in to see this atrocity. Sakura clings on to him, the rest try to pull her away. Since when did Hayato become their tug of war? Forget Savages, these girls are savage!

Episode 7Beach episode! I guess we need one so we could give Miharu an excuse to show off her hentai boobs. It is times like these that Emile hates being a guy… Because Sakura is hogging all of Hayato’s time. Not only Hayato is the hotly wanted property but Claire too because Erica and Liddy duke it out to put suntan on her. More fanservice hijinks as Hayato ends up planting his face in Claire’s boobs. Too bad we cut short this fanservice moment as Judar arrive in his helicopter to bring Claire back. Something important must have cropped up. Later Claire tells her Selections that they have a mission to do a joint clean-up mission with UN’s peacekeeping army. Judar then talks to Hayato and asks him what powers Little Garden. If you think it is some nuclear reactor, then you’re wrong. He takes him down to a secret chamber where a girl is seen in a capsule. She is LiZA. She is the one powering the entire Little Garden. Oh, did he mention she is Judar and Claire’s sister, Liza Harvey? The first Slayer and Variant. Claire is not pleased Judar told Hayato such sensitive information. Judar believes Hayato will be a top Slayer that could change the world’s power balance. Thus he needs to know these things to protect them at all costs. Also, Hayato has divine blood in which he can wake up Liza. All he needs to do is touch the capsule… And… Nothing happens. Looks like he hasn’t got enough power yet. Judar’s reason to rush is because he fears Vitaly might come get her. Judar has a past with Vitaly and needs to talk to her soon. Hence this clean-up mission is just a cover-up so he can capture her Hunters and get some information.

The gang are dropped off at Tian Quan City. Instantly this bratty girl rushes to hug Emile and almost revealing his identity. What’s this about Emilia being a hidden princess? Emilia apologizes she lied to Hayato about her name. It isn’t Emilia Hermit but Emilia Gudenburg. Third in line to the Gudenburg royalty. When you have a girl so obsessed about her princess, you can tell she hates the main character. Claudia Loetty from Britannia’s Slayer army begs Emilia to come home but Emilia has vowed never to go back. But can Emilia do it for the sake of Claudia? Not a chance because she loves Hayato more! Another women’s logic: For Emilia to turn out like that… Whose fault is it? Damn you Hayato! Claudia challenges him to a duel over Emilia. Claudia gets pumped up in fighting Hayato. Too bad Emilia is cheering at how cool Hayato is. Eventually lesbian girl loses and being the sore loser she is, she wants another match. Not a chance. And since Emilia won’t give her face to go back with her, I guess that’s that. Shock! Heartbroken! Claudia runs away in tears, though she is not giving up yet. And she still blames Hayato for it all.

Episode 8It could have been a normal debriefing had not been Claudia is part Emile’s group. Yeah, she is going to show and prove how superior she is to win back Emilia’s heart. When is she going to learn she is not coming back to you? A little dressing down from Claire at least has Claudia shut up a bit. I’m sure we’re not interested in the fight against Savages or seeing Claudia the b*tch showing off how good she is. Because we’re more interested to see who sleeps with who for the night. Worst possible combination for the shift for Emile is that he got Erica while Claudia goes with Claire and Hayato. After changing shifts, Claudia tries to hook Claire and Hayato and send them on a patrol-cum-date. So she thinks she can get Emilia back? She should try harder… Indeed Claire and Hayato spot a Savage. I don’t know how Claire can even trip but thankfully there is Hayato to finish the job. Meanwhile Claudia tries to tell Emilia that Claire and Hayato are dating by the lake. Although feeling shock, Emilia still won’t give up on Hayato. Yeah, it is not enough a reason to run back to he own country if the person she loves is dating someone else. See, what did I tell you?

So while Claire cleans herself at the lake, they talk about Hayato’s power and his experience as a Variant. He mentions when he enters into such mode, he feels his senses numb. She believes Liza must have experienced the same thing. Liza is a designer baby as Savage fluids were injected into a fertilized egg. However this is not the doing of Vitaly as she was a mere assistant. It was Linis, their mother. How could a mother do that to her own child? It was the only way she believed could beat the gods in war. Liza exhibited extremely rare and abnormal talent as a Slayer from a young age. But one day she unleashed some forbidden power to save Claire from a Savage. Ever since she has been in slumber mode and giving off enough energy to power Little Garden. Liza is Judar’s trump card and the reason Claire is the captain is to watch his actions closely. Liza isn’t a tool for ambitions but her precious little sister. She wonders if she has failed being a captain for prioritizing her personal reasons but Hayato understands those feelings. If Karen did not need treatment, he wouldn’t have become a Slayer in the first place. An emergency call startles them. Again, how the heck did Claire slip her naked body onto Hayato?! A reason to blame him and have him take responsibility. Anyway the emergency call is from another squad. They are being wiped out by those Hunters. Fritz’s group just got done in as Claire confronts them in her full body armament. She is stronger than them and warns them to cooperate and give answers. Then it starts raining, giving the Hunters the advantage.

Episode 9
The rain powers up the Hunters as they defeat Claire. Before Krovanh could finish her, Hayato and co arrive. The fierce fighting continues although Krovanh’s sisters, Nesat and Nakri are taken out. Krovanh claims this world there is only despair. That is why they are going to change the world. Man, Krovanh is hitting so hard that Hayato could even glimpse his memories! Let’s see. Child slavery. Mistreated and abuse. They escape. Along the way, Nesat lost an eye. Saved by Vitaly, she could restore it but also give them new powers that would set them free. Hayato too has his own reason to fight: To make this world a better place and protect everyone he cares. This serves to make Krovanh mad as he doesn’t care what the virus will do to him as he ramps up its power. Fortunately a Savage rises from the lake to attack. Krovanh suggests a ceasefire and will help out in taking it down in exchange they take its core. But no matter how hard and heavy (and mad) he hits, its barrier is not breaking. He is blasted away only to be saved by Hayato. Why oh why? Because he wants to make a world where no one gets hurt. So does this mean a harem ending is possible? Anyway, after the Hunters disable their communication jamming device, Claire is able to connect to Char on Little Garden. Based on LiZA’s analysis, the barrier can be shattered if all Slayers concentrate their firepower at the same time. Okay, let’s do it. Nothing happens. Not enough firepower, you say? Well, considering that many of them just got owned.

There is another way… Hayato and Claire must kiss! Ah… We can hear those concerned parties voicing out their disagreement. In doing so, Hayato will transfer his Variant virus to her. It is not known about the long term effects but for now, they have to take care of this Savage. So what are you waiting for? Yay! They kiss! “There is something warm entering my body…”. Oh, you make it sound so dirty. Claire powers up significantly and destroys its barrier, allowing Hayato to finish the job. He collapses into the lake and Emilia jumps in to save him. Guess what? She kisses him. Does it count since he is out? Yeah, nobody must have more kisses than her. In the aftermath, our Little Garden Slayers return as they have suffered damage so they leave it to other groups and countries to continue the mission. The Hunters are taken in and Claire has a feeling Judar is behind it. Emile tries to kiss Hayato recuperating in hospital but Karen and Sakura walk in just in time. Too bad Emile can’t add another kiss to the tally but at least Karen believes that didn’t happen because it would be totally weird for guys to kiss, right? Right?! So she’s never seen yaoi… Everyone is happy when Hayato wakes up. Vitaly realizes those hunters aren’t coming back but no matter because there will be no more hindrances to her plan.

Episode 10
The Hunters although are in custody, their lips remain tightly sealed. Vitaly’s secret lab has also been found but she has already fled and all important data deleted. Thus she is still at large. There is an upcoming festival that celebrates the launching of Little Garden, Garden’s Festa. Additional security is needed so they will join forces with Slayers from other nations. And this means a bad feeling for Emile because… That pesky Claudia is here!!! F*ck!!! Thank goodness they won’t be paired together this time. Hayato learns that Karen will also be singing at Sakura’s performance as a special guest. He wonders if it is possible as she has a weak body. Don’t worry. Char has tweaked her Hundred to enable her to prance around. As the Festa takes place, Hayato and Emile are walking around and stumble upon Reitia and Erica helping out a maid cafe. Erica is very embarrassed in this outfit but Emile teases her by taking photos and wanting to send them to Claire. But Erica gets her best revenge when the duo are ushered in. She makes Emile dress up as a maid! The other maids are impressed Emile looks so much like a cute girl! You don’t say… Erica starts fondling Emilia’s boobs and the rest of the maids egg Hayato to do the same. Bear in mind that everyone else believes Emilia is a guy and they are excited all about it because of the Hayato x Emile yaoi doujin. Yeah… When Hayato is pushed, he falls on top of Emilia and grabs her boobs. He thought it was just towels to bust it up but they’re the real deal! The maids cannot stop taking photos! They encourage them to kiss in which Emilia doesn’t mind and wants to! Hayato pleads for Erica to help out but her shift is over and she has gone back to work. You’re on your own. Just before the concert, Hayato sees Karen. He thinks her outfit is a bit revealing? Isn’t this how all Slayers dress in battle? For making her nervous, a peck on the forehead is all that she wants to calm her down. And for good luck charm. Hey, even Judar personally comes to see them to give his blessings. No kissing charm, though. As Sakura’s concert begins, Vitaly slips into the Festa after hypnotizing a Slayer. So much about security. It is Karen’s turn to sing and a little embarrassing blooper since she is nervous. But after Sakura calms her down, she starts singing beautifully.

Episode 11
Vitaly begins her own show. There are suspicious bee drones hovering all over. Attempts to catch them only has them self destruct. Then heck, they just start blowing up power lines and everything. There are automatic cleaning robots that turn into those bees and some even hijacking the entire system to have unpiloted planes crash into Little Garden! Woah. Well, that is Little Garden’s ex-super technician and designer for you. Claire gives commands for all available Slayers to take them out. It gets harder when there are Savages coming in. But these are not your ordinary Savages. They are artificially made by Vitaly as they have no core. And there are bigger ones outside Little Garden pounding on the shield barrier and in no time they will break in. Char believes this is Vitaly’s war declaration on Warlsarn. Claire wants to go out and fight but Chris is against it and she must stay here at the command centre to command and calm all Slayers. This is where Hayato and Emile come in to cover for her. Because LiZA said so too. What the f*ck are they doing in the command centre in the first place instead of helping other Slayers?! Claire gives them a condition to come back alive and protect everyone. Well, duh! The Hunters are glad Vitaly is here to rescue them. As she is launching an attack on Little Garden, she needs their help. But Krovanh remains sceptical. He believed their deal was not to hurt ordinary people and their fight was just against Slayers. Besides, he believes the people here are not that bad. Vitaly then uses some sound wave to mind control them under control. Meimei tries to save them but was taken out.

Episode 12
Vitaly is forcing the Hunters to obey her every command. Here comes Meimei again to save them. Vitaly abandons them and runs into LiZA’s chamber. Judar is waiting for her. Vitaly reveals her goal. This is about revenge. Revenge on him for pretending to love her, then used her and then threw her away. So this entire thing is basically a woman’s revenge on her ex-lover? No sh*t. She is going to make him suffer but destroying LiZA before his eyes. First, her Savages give out some sort of sound wave with viruses that weaken the Slayers. When Vitaly fires at the chamber, nothing happens. Surely it can’t be easily destroyed by a few bullet shots, right? Even more shocking is that LiZA has awakened. This is all part of Judar’s plan. By using Sakura’s songs, he gambled LiZA would awaken faster. In other words, he used her again. Vitaly fires more bullets into him but LiZA protects him. And then Judar shoots her. He thanks her for helping him a lot in his plans. What a tragic love story. LiZA then tells Sakura and Karen to sing for everyone. Their singing cancels out the virus and the Slayers are able to fight again. Hayato transforms to his full body armament to take down the big mother Savage but it is not enough. Krovanh unleashes his frustration on it but there is only so much anger can do. Now it is Nesat’s turn to get mad. In her bid to protect her brother, she uses her power to absorb the Savage. Now she is fused with it. This is dangerous as Char recognizes it as the same situation that happened to Liza. She will eventually go out of control and cause a huge explosion.

Meanwhile unconscious Hayato is visited by LiZA and is told he can save her. So what is his motivation? LiZA kisses him!!! OMG! He even gets a kiss from the super computer girl! You lucky bastard! Claire has decided between taking one life and sacrificing thousands. But wait. Hayato can save them all! She is going to give him one chance and if he fails, she will take Nesat out herself. So the method Hayato is going to save her is using his voice to reach her? Talking about freedom, eh? Well, I guess this is what diplomacy is supposed to be. But what happens if that doesn’t work? Well, they clash once and in this whatever alternate dimension, he talks to her once more. This time about trust and friends. Yeah. You can trust me. Thankfully he isn’t a politician ;p. And just like that, Nesat returns to normal. At night as the fireworks display on Little Garden, suddenly Emilia usurps us by kissing Hayato. Ah, she must always outdo the others, right? After saying their wish to be with each other, you mean Hayato is agreeing to kiss her a second time?! OMG! He did! And then everybody sees this and misinterprets this gay moment. Claudia is most mad as she corners Hayato and warns him about kissing the princess. Unfortunately she spilled all the details so Emilia has to come clean. She confesses she is a girl and a princess. Shocker, no? I take back Claudia is the maddest because that goes to Claire who is going to blast them with her beam! F*ck this sh*t!!!

From Hundred To ZeroWell, well. Are you mind blown yet? I couldn’t be happier it ended. And I’m even gladder that it ended on a cheesy cat fight but at the same time they should just extend it and see how Claire hunts down Hayato and Emilia’s ass for whatever jealousy reasons. I think that would have been a better plot than fighting Savages or that cheesy ex-girlfriend-revenge-plot-by-killing-thousands-of-innocents scheme. Seriously, there has got to be a better way than seeking revenge on you ex-boyfriend. And too bad for her it didn’t pay off and got used for one last time again by the sneaky bastard. Just as planned… Sheesh. Is Vitaly really dead or will Judar encased her in a capsule for his next phase of his plan? Don’t care. Don’t want to know.

Forgive me if I am saying how cliché, generic and typical the characters are for I have seen so many of such similar genres that they look so same that if I were to say it again, I would be repeating myself for the hundredth time. Maybe I should just post a link and refer them to my previous blogs but then again that will take a lot of work and I am feeling so lazy so just screw that. So you have the cliché and generic main character (check his tragic past, check his hidden powers, check his destiny to change the future or power balance, check his ideals that he will stick to, check his babe magnet, check everything else), his harem girls that include the flirty idol, the possessive cross-dresser, the little sister trope, the b*tches, the lesbian b*tches, the scheming big brother commander, the other guy, a rocket scientist, her furry android maid servant, an AI, a busty nurse, a typical antagonist who was once a member of the team gone astray and her bunch of misguided followers. Yeah, very diverse indeed.

So I’m not going to jump in and repeat again all the typical characters because I don’t want to bore myself again. I’m just going to note a few like Emile/Emilia is mind boggling and as annoying. Although the same person, sometimes I get so confused if I should refer to this cross-dresser as a guy or girl that I just gave up and just refer to him/her whatever my mind comes to. The weirdest thing about him/her is that he/she wants to be close to Hayato. And I mean close enough to hold his hand and arm like how lovers do. Because here I thought he/she was trying to keep his/her gender identity a secret but at the same time has no qualms in getting into situations in public that would cause people to misinterpret about their relationship. I’m not sure if he/she is trying to indirectly garner some sort of support for Hayato x Emile yaoi doujin. Because that would only make it worse because you know, every other girl would be squealing over them and isn’t that what Emilia doesn’t want? Other girls to get closer to Hayato? Either way, he/she is annoying as hell. And you thought revealing her as a real girl was the biggest surprise of the series, huh? Big joke… Even her secret princess identity wasn’t that much of a big deal. Okay, so it does to others. Especially Sakura. Because now a royalty ranks higher than an idol and guess where she stands now in the pecking order for Hayato’s love? Yeah…

The only other character that is amusing and interesting is Claudia because of her b*tch and lesbian admiration for Emilia. She never gives up. Anything wrong, always blames Hayato. I figure every such harem anime (or at least most of them) should have one girl who hates our female attracting main character because it would be more fun that way. Despite being annoying, at least she is funny in that sense unlike Emile/Emilia who is just plain annoying. Man, she should have appeared earlier because I never seem to tire of her baseless accusations. And the other amusing ‘character’ that I find is LiZA who seems to be the so called most intelligent thing on Little Garden. Because every damn advice it gives out must be so good that nobody questions it and just follows. Even though she only prints one English word on screen. How the f*ck did she not detect Vitaly sneaking onboard. Even the smartest AI has her limits. Especially when you encased a comatose girl in a capsule. And now that she is free, will she be moving around in her spirit form? That will be scary and making Little Garden looking a bit haunted, isn’t it?

The fanservice and factor is also generic and cliché. At least it is better for me to talk about this since I love this kind of stuffs seasons in, seasons out. Even though they are pretty much very similar. So by throwing in a lot of kisses, do they think they can make this generic series stand out? Well, this isn’t the only series in the genre to have a main character getting multiple kisses throughout the season. But you know, kisses are like declaration of war in harem genres and with almost every potential candidate having kissed Hayato in some way. I am sure Emile/Emilia is leading the kiss count. Then there are cheesy obligatory fanservice which include females with big boobs, females who end up in the nude (but short of any frontal nudity and hentai) and because what good will it do if you omit the cliché ‘main character must fall over and have his face and/or hands on her boobs’ scene. And don’t forget the bath scenes too. I know it is all generic and probably why we watch this anime and yet why do I sound like I’m complaining? Do I really sound like I’m complaining about this?

Same can be said for the harem side. To balance out everything, you have girls who love him and girls who hate him. I wish they had materialize more cat fights over Hayato (cat fight round 1 between Claire and Emilia when?) because personally I think it is better to see them fight against Savages that you will know they will triumph over in the end. But what bugged me was Reitia’s position. We have Emilia, Claire, Sakura and to a certain extent Karen who love Hayato. Then we also have Liddy and Erica having hots for Claire and Claudia for Emilia. So where does that leave Reitia? She is the first character he bumps into and it gave an impression that she would most likely end up being one of the potential candidates. Then what happened to her? Is she more like Noa and Xuemei level? Not really because it feels she is more than them. Perhaps like Char level? So in addition to girls who love and hate Hayato, we got girls who aren’t even on his radar. That is why I felt that she and her partner Fritz are like redundant characters. Characters who are there just to show that not everything revolves around Hayato or related to him. The other Slayer team with no ‘important’ connection to him. At least better than other background characters whose names we will never even know.

One of the most important aspects that were not really addressed is the origins of the Savages. I mean as much as I prefer the silly cat fights and I-will-have-more-kisses-to-Hayato-than-any-other-of-you-b*tches, sometimes I want to know what these are. What are they in the first place and why are they attacking the world. Because of the cheesy focus on the characters, these alien monsters get side-lined and being reduced to just baddies for our heroes to take them out. It feels like they are just existing for that reason. Not to say that I am not rooting for the Slayer heroes but it feels like hating something because you don’t understand the full extent of it. Like hating Mario’s Bowser just because he always kidnaps the princess and thus his reputation will always forever be known as the great villain. Have you ever thought he may be the one saving her from the delusional clutches of a psychopath Italian plumber? Or if everything was just a freaking act? Woah… Don’t want to go into that kind of conspiracy theory. Therefore having these Savages here just feels empty and I don’t really see them live up to their barbaric nickname. Even though the aliens have this Savage as their nickname to give them some sort of identity, it just isn’t enough. Heck, they could have just given them any name and it still won’t matter.

Action scenes also feel average and sometimes a side dish to whatever this anime is all about. Because of the need for the Slayers to show off their single set of skills and hence the need for a fight between humans and giant bugs. There is hardly any variety or even any unique moves that I would even remember as it is either they fire some laser beam or strike it with a sword. Other than that, I wonder how many bullets Vitaly’s gun can hold because she seems to be shooting it like nobody’s business without reloading. And then when it runs out, it is a sign for her to bite the dust and get shot by Judar who used only a single bullet and he made that bullet count. Oh boy…

Art and drawing feels rather okay, nothing to shout about. If the art feels similar, it is because Production IMS have also animated similar series in the harem and sci-fi genre like Shinmai Maou No Testament, Date A Live, Masou Gakuen HxH, Active Raid and Ore Twintail Ni Narimasu. Character designs feel pretty generic and I’m sure I have seen those body suit designs somewhere before but as usual, I’m too lazy to go think and do some back study. As for the designs of the Savages, I’m not sure if putting glowing stripes over them makes them look any menacing. I don’t know. It just seems weird.

Of all the decent voice acting, I only recognized Yui Horie as Char and Rina Satou as Souffle. The rest of the casts include Yoshiaki Hasegawa as Hayato (Yura Mikage in Mayoiga), Rumi Ookubo as Emile/Emilia (Nona in Death Parade), Mao as Claire (Kazumi in Gokukoku No Brynhildr), Yoshimasa Hosoya as Judar (Haruhiro in Hai To Gensou No Grimgar), Mayu Oshioka as Sakura (Mayu in Wake, Up Girls), Kaya Okuno as Karen (Kaya in Wake Up, Girls!), Yui Makino as Erica (Sakura in Tsubasa Chronicle), Rika Kinugawa making her debut as Liddy (Takako Chino in Orange), Yuka Ootsubo as Reitia (Kyouko in YuruYuri), Wataru Hoshino as Fritz (Gajeel in Fairy Tail), Chinatsu Akasaki as Claudia (Yasuna in Kill Me Baby), Romi Paku as Vitaly (Hitsugaya in Bleach), Yuuhei Takagai as Krovanh (Gowther in Nanatsu No Taizai), Saori Oonishi as Nesat (Emi in Jinsei) and Machico as Nakri (Nishiyama in Sansha Sanyou).

I have a hunch that they decided to break the monotony and add some spice in what was turning out to be a mediocre series. That is why for a short series with only a dozen episodes, there are multiple ending themes, each lasting only 3 episodes. Fortunately there is one which is quite attractive to listen to and it is the second ending theme, Tabooless by the student council top dogs (b*tches doesn’t sound appropriate, right?) trio of Claire, Erica and Liddy. It is a sultry and sexy dance beat (although the animation shows the trio in high class sexy slutty lingerie). This is far best my favourite song of the series. Others are rather okay like the hard rock third ending theme, Hardy Buddy by Fritz and Reitia, the anime rock first ending theme, Eyes On Me by Emilia and Sakura and the fourth ending theme which is a slow ballad by Sakura and Karen. Sakura also sings a couple of insert songs throughout the series like Itsuka Anata Wo and Sand Mirage but none of them captured my attention. Oddly, if Fritz’s seiyuu had a singing part, I don’t see why Hayato’s didn’t have one. Can’t sing? Too main character for his own song? As for the opening theme, your typical anime rock, Bloodred by D-selections. Nothing special, though.

Overall, another disappointing anime to add to my list with average and cheesiness in every department. Uh huh, calling Infinite Stratos as a better comparison is saying something… Because the girls there are cuter :p. But I can only blame myself for taking the bait as I am condemned forever to love such shows. That is why even when producers make the same similar shows in the future with just few tweaks and variations, people like me will still fall for it for the hundredth and even thousandth time. It never gets old. It’s like our seasonal fix for our addiction. Same time, same place next season? Yeah, if you have seen a hundred harem sci-fi series, you’ve seen them all. And that’s pretty savage!